Theories of Edumacation
I’ve always been a big believer that you can get just about anywhere you want with whatever degree you’ve got. The only place this doesn’t seem to fit are in industries where very specific government regulations prevail such as education, healthcare, finance, and law. I think I’ve always felt this way because my dad’s a Yale grad with a history major focused on the Middle Ages, yet has been an investment writer for over 25 years. Seems like you can get any job you want if you work hard enough at it.
Despite the fact that more and more people are saying the Graduate degree is the new Bachelors and moaning about the declining value of your college degree, I still hold to the belief that most masters degrees are almost worthless. Maybe not “almost worthless” but certainly not of more value than several years of real-world work experience. I don’t even think where you attend college matters much beyond your first job, which a good school might help you acquire.
I’m willing to acknowledge that my thoughts on this matter most likely stem from my general dislike of institutions of higher learning. It might be the precocious snobbery associated with academia that I hate. But I was one of those kids who probably would have been better off going to vocational tech school than the ridiculously crazy private school I attended. Wow, that says a lot about me. Rock on with your bad self, Soldering 101!
Tell me about the degree you got and how worthwhile it’s been to you over the years.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
this post is a punch in the gut to the unemployed among us.
July 17th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
social work and counseling are additional fields rife with government regulations, and i feel like my master’s really is valuable, but that’s because, really, it’s more of a vocational track disguised as academia. most of my education has been pretty focused on practical skill-building.. also, to actually get a job in my field, i have to have the credentials in order to practice. and i love school.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
it goes without saying that my BA and MA degrees are worth crap — an expensive crap, mind you, but still crap. i too would have been better off (and probably much happier) spending hours underneath a car learning to change oil and replace spark plugs. next time around, karma. next time around.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
ok, definitely not meant to rile or offend in any way. i just hate school.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
MS definitely useful in nursing. opens up many more career options. especially since I paid 9 bucks a quarter for the thing. hooray for ohio state graduate assistantships.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:02 am
It pains me to type this, but I have to aaa…..gggr….eeee with you (ouch!).
Far too often Bachelor degrees and even most Masters degrees are valued as mearly a ticket to open a door rather than the meaningful value in higher education. I love my engineering degree. I am, and will always be a math geek. But it’s market value is of no greater significance than the “Business” degrees that surround me in my field. Did college prepare me for some of the total BS work I did for the first 5 years of my career? Hell no! I learned more about business and consulting from being in the workplace rather than sitting in some classroom.
And don’t get me started on “MBAs”. This degree, in my humble opinion, is total crap. And yet, go do a search on monster or where-evs and you’ll see that it’s a prerequisite for a job. I know some PRETTY dumb people that have MBAs. Are they more “qualified” than some of the really bright non-MBA-ers out there? No way jose. Go get a MS degree in engeineering management, and then we can talk. MBA’s merely scratch the surface of the deeper business issues and case analysis. The best thing I learned in my MS program? the joke below
An executive team asked a group of consultants (2 mbas and 2 MS’s) to determine the height of a flagpole out in front of the building. the 2 MBAers stood out in front of their laptops creating Powerpoints about the value of flagpoles, the market position of each of their competitors around flagpoles, and a survey of recent flagpole builds. The 2 MSers unscrewed the pole from the ground, brought it down, and used a measuring tape to determine the length. Then they reassembled the flagpole in its proper position. They drafted a report, handed one copy to the MBAs and walked toward the executive offices with another copy. The MBAs laughed, and said to eachother “Classic engineers. The client asks for height and they give them length.”
That story is a lot shorter when you don’t have to type it.
Anyhow. Degrees are dumb, and so is the debt.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I CONCUR. But that’s pretty obvious.
But your joke sucks.